Improvement in herbals and scrap-books



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

IMPROVEMENT IN HERBALS AND SCRAP-BOOKS.

Specieation forming partof Letters Patent No. 43, [35, dated June 14, 1864.

.To @ZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, A. M. SAFFORD, of Springfield, in the county of Hampden and State of Massachusetts, have invented an Improved Herbarium; and I do hereby declare that the'following is a full and exact description thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, making part of this specification. a

Figure l is a vievv in perspective of a herbarium open constructed in my improved manner, Fig. 2, a transverse section of the same.

Like letters designate corresponding parts in both figures.

Each sheet or leaf B of the herbarium is inade of thick binders board, thin pieces of `Wood, or equivalent material, of the size desired, and as thick as any of the specimens ot' plants to be preserved may require, and be contained within the planes of its surfaces, when inserted in openings of the board. These sheets are cut away, except a sutlicient margin or border, b, all round, so as to leave all the middle portion, a., open to receive the plants in. Then on one side of the sheet or frame thus formed is stretched a strong, thick sheet of smooth paper, o, forming a back thereto. The space a thereby becomes a shallow box, `which is to hold the plant and the plant is to be secured to the back c by glue, thread, or any other convenient means in the usual manner. The sheets or boards B B may be of various thicknesses, as different specimensV may require, so that they may sink flush with or beneath the sides b b. As many of these sheets` as it may be desired to have together are bound in a cover, A, in the man ner of an ordinary book or album, substantially as shown inthe drawings, and when folded together the sheets will all shut close to one another, so as to completely' inelose the specimens and protect them from the air and from insects and other vermin, and the Whole makes a neat appearance. They are as readily examined as a picture or the contents of a book. The genus and species of a plant, and

any other particulars, such as are ordinarily Written in herbariums, may be witten either on the same side ot the back c as where the plants are attached, as indicated at f, Fig. 1, or on the back of the same sheet, or on the back of the sheet preceding, so as to he seen in the same folic or opening as the plant.

An herbarium book or sheets of this kind also may be useful for attaching small pictures, drawings, scraps, Src., instead of a scrap-book, and be much neater in appearance than ordinary scrapbooks, since the book shuts the leaves close, and thus keeps in good shape.

What I claim as my invention, and desire Y to secure by Letters Patent, is-

The improved herbarium constructed and arranged substantially as herein specified.

The above specification of my improved herbarium and scrap-book signed by me this 22d day of March, 1864.

A. M. SAFFORI).

VWitnesses: Y

PAMELIA C. SMITH, HEMAN SMITH. 

